Talk:Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (novel)/@comment-2601:240:4202:B27D:FC83:2575:3D44:AF43-20180305232243
The novel, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, is difficult to understand because the events of the novel are presented in an intentionally jumbled manner; often without any explanation regarding when something is happening or why it is happening. The novel proceeds as though it is a jigsaw puzzle with many pieces of the puzzle thrown at you in no discernible order. You must connect the pieces together in your mind until the full picture of the novel emerges. This can be challenging. Just remember, as with any puzzle and according to the guiding principle of this book, everything is connected. The following summary of plot elements should help you understand Adams’ sometimes confusing narrative, without giving away the complete story of the novel. ALIEN CREATURES STARTED ALL LIFE ON EARTH 1. Four-billion years ago an alien scout ship lands and stalls on the sterile prehistoric earth. An alien engineer tries to repair the ship, but instead causes an explosion that kills all aliens. The explosion kick-starts the evolution of cellular life on earth, eventually producing the human race. THE ALIEN GHOST 2. The dead alien engineer is so upset by its botched repair that it exists for billions of years on earth as a disembodied ghost, roaming the earth and trying to find a way to travel back in time and save itself and its crew by completing the repair and avoiding the explosion. Once the human race evolves, the alien finds that it can mentally control a human if the human is drugged or agrees with what the alien wants him/her to do. The alien resolves to use this mental control ability to achieve its time travel objective. INSTANTANEOUS TRAVEL IN SPACE AND TIME IS POSSIBLE 3. A professor at a British college has been teaching students at his university for several hundred years and no one at the university has noticed that his life has been exceptionally long. This professor uses a machine that forms a portal that opens a door from his living quarters to any time or place in the universe. He can therefore visit the past or even alien planets. The alien ghost needs to use this time machine in order to repair its ship and avoid an explosion. However, the ghost is unable to control the conscious mind of the time-traveling professor and must therefore use indirect means in an effort to control use of the time machine. THE ELECTRIC MONK 4. The alien beings that landed on earth had created an artificial android called the “Electric Monk” which, by pure chance, looks like a human being and has the amazing capacity to fanatically believe anything. The Electric Monk rides an artificial horse that is docile, patient and obedient. The alien ghost, by devious means, causes the professor to transport an Electric Monk and its horse from their home planet to earth in the current time period. The alien does this because it believes the Monk will be able to help with the time travel plan. However, the Monk is of no use to the alien and chaotic events ensue. COLERIDGE'S POEM “KUBLA KHAN” IS THE KEY TO REPAIRING THE ALIEN SPACE SHIP, AVOIDING AN EXPLOSION AND ERASING THE HUMAN RACE FROM TIME 5. Coleridge is a famous 18th century poet (and drug user) who is well-known for his poem, Kubla Khan, which is considered a literary masterpiece of the Romantic Period. In the 18th century, the alien ghost takes over Coleridge’s drugged mind and causes him to insert technical information in the Kubla Khan poem that describes how to safely repair the alien space ship. The ghost does this because the technical details of the repair are fading from its memory with the passing of time and must therefore be recorded in the poem as a sort of repair manual for the ship. In the current time period, the ghost has forgotten how to repair its ship and needs the Kubla Kahn narrative to provide the required technical information. DIRK GENTLY MUST FIND A WAY TO SAVE THE HUMAN RACE ONCE HE UNDERSTANDS THAT THE DEVIOUS ALIEN GHOST’S REPAIR PLAN WILL ERASE HUMANITY FROM TIME 6. In order to understand Dirk’s plan to foil the alien ghost, you must know the meaning of the phrase “Person form Porlock.” In 18th century literature, a Person from Porlock is anyone who interferes with the author’s concentration, disrupts the creative process and therefore makes it impossible for the author to complete his/her work. Dirk must become a Person from Porlock and prevent Coleridge from ever transcribing the alien’s space ship repair information in order to produce a universe with a timeline in which the alien ship explodes and the human race evolves. THIS IS A DETECTIVE NOVEL, SO SOMEONE DIES 7. A significant part of the novel is devoted to the death of Gordon Way, head of WayForward Technologies and the boss of Richard MacDuff who was a college roommate of Dirk Gently. The Electric Monk is told by a porter to “shoot off” (that is, to leave) and the Monk takes this as an instruction to shoot someone. So he climbs in the trunk of Gordon’s car which contains some shotguns for hunting. When Gordon checks the trunk (the “boot” in English parlance) the Monk blasts him with a shotgun, killing him instantly and setting in motion the Gently investigation of this murder which leads to the alien ghost and the plot to wipe out humanity. Oddly, Gordon survives his own murder as a ghost and considerable time is spent describing how difficult it is for the disembodied Gordon to navigate the material world. Eventually Gordon leaves a phone message (the second one) which satisfies his need to communicate needful information and he then disappears since he has nothing further to do. To complicate things further, Michael Wenton-Weakes is introduced as a character that can be controlled by the alien ghost, so Weakes is the physical means by which the alien intends to travel back in time, fix his ship and wipe out the human race. As previously noted Dirk blocks the alien’s plan and saves the day. The alien mother ship is also blown up to ensure there will be no continuing threat from the alien ghost. Last, Susan Way, Richard’s girlfriend (and Gordon’s sister) is introduced as a professional cellist in part to introduce the topic of classical music to the story. In the end Dirk’s messing with time results in amazing music created by the aliens being given to Beethoven in order to establish him as a music genius and give the world a portion of the wonderful alien music If you read the book with these things in mind, it should be much easier to understand what is going on. You might even be able to understand the entire book after a single reading, and without having to draw complex flow charts.